There are many reasons to replace carpet with hardwood flooring. These includes adding value and style, durability, ease of maintenance and sustainability. But some things have to be taken into consideration before tearing out your carpet.

How moisture levels affect hardwood flooring installation

Moisture is a critical area of concern, especially in areas that have low elevation and environments with high humidity. Moisture testing is the best way to make sure that your floor look and function at its best, thereby, protecting your investment. To ensure that humidity from the ground never reach your wood floor, cover the ground under your crawl space with a plastic sheeting. If you know your moisture levels in advance, you can use proper adhesives to achieve a quality hardwood floor that will last for 50 to 100 years.

Costs of installing hardwood floor

Installation of hardwood flooring is more complicated than just replacing carpet.

Cost of project: hardwood is a sound investment with premium product. To ensure that there are no unknown costs,discuss your total budget with your flooring professional. Labor, cleaning, tax, shipping, adhesive, furniture moving, etc are all costs to be considered.

Processes involved in hardwood flooring

Once you’ve finalized your project, begin the installation process. The process is as follows:

Preparation – Move the furniture and existing flooring. Examine surface areas for imperfections and address as needed. Install the new flooring material including transitions and any baseboard or trim that needs to be reinstalled.

Clean the area and put the furnitures back into place.

If you want a completed and satisfactory job, discuss in details potential issues and how they should be addressed with your installer.

Hardwood Floor Matching

If there are hardwood flooring in some areas of your home already and you are looking to add more, trying to match the two surfaces is mostly impossible. Your existing floor will show signs of age, even if you find the exact material from the same manufacturer.

Because the human eye is very percept at picking up little changes, it can be distracting to have two areas of your flooring to have a close appearance but not matching. The best thing to do is to use designs and methods that will break up the transition so that your eye can view the sections as separate but complementary zones. Professionals with enough experience can guide you through this process and also provide several options for the best functional and aesthetic outcome.

Choose alternate colors and materials that will work well with the existing flooring and the room itself.

Also, wood transitions should be installed on purpose so as to break up the sections in order for the flooring not to appear as a poor match attempt. And above all these mentions, it’s still very important that one always take good care of their floor whether carpet, by hiring a good carpet cleaner, or the hardwood. That way, either option will always look good.